Archive for September, 2010

I’ve been wanting to blog about these babies for a long time. These have become a favorite of mine. They are easy yet not boring. You know? Sometimes even I get bored of snickerdoodles. I think the sprinkles really make the difference here.

I am still battling with the janky little oven in my apartment, so these guys were a little more toasty than I expected. But they still tasted pretty darn good. I would know, since I ate about half of them in one weekend.

I’m also having trouble with the whole photog situation here. Although I have a fab new camera from my big bro, I cant seem to obtain enough lighting at any time of day that allows for good photos. I don’t have a tripod… I suppose that would be the answer. But anyone out there has any tips for shooting in lowish/poor light without a flash, let me know!!

Bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press an unwrapped mini peanut butter cup into each ball. When the chocolate gets nice and melted, shake some sprinkles on top for a little extra pizzaz. Let cool in pan and remove – they may seem very fragile at first but they firm up nicely within a few minutes! Try not to eat 12 at once. I dare you.

I tried.. and failed. But then I tried again… and came out with these!!

Okay let’s back up. You need to meet some people that will be very important in my baking adventures over the next year.

Meet Betsy, Rebs, and Laney, who I guess decided not to be featured in this adorable picture. My housemates and default taste testers. They are awesome.

This weekend, Betsy demanded (not requested, but demanded) that I make some cupcakes. So I pulled out my trusty Hello, Cupcake! book. And remembered these fun fall cupcakes that I have been dying to try since I got the book.

Making these cupcakes was quite an adventure. First I had to collect a LOT of leaves. I had a little help – thanks Jack (even though your leaves were diseased)! Then I had to wash them and dry them.

I melted three colors of candy wafers and basically fingerpainted the heck out of about 50 leaves. This is a difficult task with no microwave, because I had to keep washing my double boiler to reheat each color.

I discovered that one coating of chocolate makes for a reeeal flimsy leaf, so I had to do another coat. Mind you, we are on about hour 5 of baking (I made the cupcakes and frosting from scratch), so I was getting a little tired. But I trucked on and finished – caramel acorns and all!

I’m not going to lie, it is a little relieving to finally have my groove back. And now Betsy is going to choose a new cupcake for me to make EVERY weekend. Any suggestions?

That’s a story for another day though. Right now I want to talk about that first piece of advice. These cheesecake brownies were the “try” part that comes after you don’t succeed. After my less-than-stellar cookie episode that I had intended to bring to a Drastic Measures a capella rehearsal, I woke up early the next morning and whipped up a batch of scrumptious cheesecake brownies.

WRONG. These guys have no place being called brownies. There was chocolate, and there was cheesecake. There was no brownie in sight.

Want to know why? Yes, I had another failure. Failure to read directions. Apparently changing 2 oz of melted chocolate into 2 cups can have some pretty serious ramifications for the consistency of your baked goods. Guys, I didn’t even have it in me to take nice pictures.

The good news in all of this? I took the cheesecake creation, sliding around on its chocolate goo, to rehearsal, where they were devoured. With spoons.

I am losing my rep here guys. Now, my blog is not widely read, I’m not like, famous or anything. But I have gained a little reputation among my immediate people that I sometimes make things that are yummy.

SO, I was pretty psyched to be finally in an apartment this year instead of the dorms, so that I could be baking year round again.

So I started blaming the oven. Like, I swear its not me, it’s just this stupid old oven!

And then I made these.

And they were not burned. They were just… not good. I played around with the original recipe in order to make them chocolatey. But don’t be deceived by pretty pictures… eating them kind of was like a mouthful of sawdust with a little pocket of yummy cheesecake included.

Somehow they all got eaten, and my housemates even tried to tell me they were good. But I’ve eaten a few chocolate cookies in my day, and guys – these just didn’t do the job.

Check out the original recipe here (which I have made and is yummmy when not tampered with)… I’m not going to even bother with my adaptation this time!

You know what they say… if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again… UNTIL NEXT TIME!